Brightside
by GuardianSaint
Summary: While on the run from Cerberus, two girls find themselves in a crazy situation. They are found by Commander Shepard and are asked to join the mission to take out the collectors. What happens when the most complicated thing come in the mix? During ME2 and ME3.


**I have been reading a lot of Mass Effect stories lately and some of them gave me a idea of a new story. Where I'm going to take on the story in another direction. This will be a threesome pairing story. Please review and let me know what you think.**

Darkness. Complete. Utter. Darkness. Not like when you close your eyes. Not like when you turn off the lights. A blanket of black enveloping her, then suddenly, a distant bright light began to destroy the void. It was distant, a small dot the size of a bean. Then it grew, and as it grew, sounds came into place. Beeps, cries, voices. Then... she cried. The bright light became blinding, and she felt something carry her. No...someone. Cold hands carried her and placed her in smaller, warmer hands.

She opened a pair of dark green eyes, no longer screaming from the top of her lungs. I see large, green eyes looking down at me. Smiling. Another figure apporching came into her view and grinned at her. A man. Something was wrong. All the worries began to fade as the warm arms carrying her made her fall into a deep sleep, forgetting the uneasy feeling that the unknown man caused.

...

At age five, she started noticing things around her. But she couldn't understand it all. She was a bright kid, to say the least. She loved her parents and as much as they loved her. There wasn't anything they didn't do for her. Her parents named her: Raiden Hawke.

Then fate had to gave the Hawkes a big change. At eleven, Raiden's parents were killed in an explosion where they worked. They were scientists, not renowned or anything, but they worked in a small laboratory. Some idiot decided to spill some chemical onto the fire which killed everyone inside the building.

Raiden was sent to the nearest foster home. To say simply; she hated it there. Too many kids going on about how they never had parents to care for them, or too many whining about their own parents dropping them here. Its not that Raiden hated them for not having something they could only dream of, it was the fact that they decided to vent their frustration on other kids by bullying them. It was a stupid thing to do, but they could have had a worst life. There was one kid though who was the odd ball of the dozens of kids there, Tahira Reid.

Tahira never spoke to anyone and the other kids didn't seem to pay attention to her. It was as if she was a ghost. There was something about her that called to Raiden. But, years passed and Raiden never talked to her. Until Tahira approached her one afternoon.

"Hey."

The word was so simple yet it had something hidden behind it.

"Uh, hi. Do you...need something?"

"No."

There was a silence that seemed to last for eternity until she broke it.

"What you in for?"

"You make it sound like we're in a prison. Though looking at it, it kinda is."

"Yeah. Been here a long time. Since I was eight, I think. Parents dumped me here. Don't remember, don't care. You?"

"Parents died. No other family." Raiden replied, looking at the older female. She was standing with her hands crossed, looking down at her.

Raiden was sitting on a bench, curled up reading a book she found in library. Tahira's expression remained blank, though her body was hunched in a tired manner.

"Hmm. At least you knew 'em. Can I?" Tahira asked, motioning to the empty spot next to Raiden.

"Yeah." Raiden said, sitting up and closing the book. "I had never seen you talk with anyone else and the other kids don't seem to pay much attention to you."

"Yeah, I beat up a couple of them a while back. They finally left me alone when they realized they couldn't beat me up. Still, I hate this place. I wish I could just leave already." she said, punching slightly her thigh in frustration.

Raiden didn't know her at all but in the past few months she could tell Tahira was quite rebellious, even more convinced by her revelation.

"The feeling is mutual. Even though I don't have anywhere to go, any place is a hell of a lot better than here." Raiden confessed with a deep breath.

"Hm. I never thought I'd meet someone who thought that. Most of the morons here spend their time moping or bothering others that it doesn't matter to them. But to somebody that accepts their fate gets pretty bored in here."

" _Accepting fate_..." Raiden repeated, "Huh. Fate can be hell at the crazy of times." Raiden realized what she had said and quickly apologized. "Sorry. Didn't mean to say that out loud. Just..." While she was raised to nice and kind even in the thoughtest times she tended to lean towards the renegade path every now and then.

"Don't worry. We got our something's. This place being mine." Tahira said with smile.

A caretaker announced that it was bed time, making everyone in the small courtyard head back inside the small white building. Raiden said goodnight and headed for her room and Tahira headed for hers. It was a strange experience, talking to her but she liked it.

Months passed and Raiden eventually got through the death of her parents. But Tahira helped a lot, she became the big sister that Raiden never had. They talked about the foster home, the kids that lived there, what they would ever do if they left this forsaken place.


End file.
